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Planet of the Ood (TV story)
Planet of the Ood 'is the third episode of the fourth series of ''Doctor Who. It was written by Keith Temple, directed by Graeme Harper and featured David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble. Overview To be added Synopsis Donna's first trip to an alien planet takes her to the Ood Sphere in humanity's far future, where they are belligerently tended to by the Ood. However, upon the Doctor's arrival to the planet, things start to go wrong; the Ood become afflicted with the same red-eyed condition the Doctor had previously encountered. Meanwhile, Donna is horrified to discover the human race's treatment of the Ood and struggles to decide whether or not travelling with the Doctor is as promising as she had initially thought... Plot Sales executive Mr. Bartle is played the latest advert for Ood servants due to be broadcast across the galaxy by his sales boss Klineman Halpen wherein he questions his decision to lower their price. He asks his Ood to pass him a file when it presents him with a different one; he looks up and the Ood's eyes have gone red before it kills him with it's translator sphere while wishing him a nice day. In the TARDIS, the Doctor reveals he'd set the controls to random and landed on a mysterious planet. Donna is highly excited by this until she steps outside onto a freezing, snowy landscape. The Doctor is in awe of their surroundings and, after Donna steps back into to procure and audio-hindering coat, they follow a large rocket which flies overhead and lands nearby. At the nearby Ood distribution center, Halpen meets with Bartle's assistant Solana and she shows him security footage of Bartle being killed by the Ood; Dr. Ryder tells Halpen that the Ood that killed him ran off like a rabid animal before being shot by a guard. Heading in the direction of the center, the Doctor and Donna discover the dying Ood in the snow. As he examines him, the Ood, disignated Ood Delta-50, tells them that the circle must be broken. Before dying, Delta-50 suddenly springs up with red-eye before passing. The Doctor explains that the red-eye was an affliction that came to the Ood the last time he encountered them but suspects the cause is different this time around and spots the Center in the distance. They head down there and poses are a pair of sales executives in order to infiltrate the complex. An alarm goes off and Halpin orders his head of security, Kess, ordering him to hunt down the latest red-eyed Ood and bring it to Ryder for examination. In the presentation room, while Solana shows off various features and benefits of the Ood, the Doctor opens up a star map that shows off the Ood Sphere and it's galaxy as of the year 4126, impressing Donna but also making her wonder if it's good that humanity has spread out like it has, especially when considering the number of Ood distribution centers across the three galaxies it occupies. She asks the Ood if they are all in servitude; the Ood she asks also mentions the circle but it cut off by further marketing from Solana. Deciding to investigate themselves, the Doctor and Donna go off the map to look around. Below, the red-eyed Ood is chained up and examined by Ryder, but he is unable to determine what may have caused it. He requests access to Warehouse 15 in the hopes of finding an answer; Halpen also has the red-eyed Ood killed for a later post-mortum, to the shock of his Ood servant, Ood Sigma. The Doctor and Donna break into a restricted area of the complex and watches as paries of Ood are brought out of the warehouse and whipped into submission. The Doctor decides he should try and help them as recompense for failing to save them the last time. Halpen and Ryder arrive at Warehouse 15 and observe a large entity below them. Solana contacts Halpen and tells them that the background checks on the Doctor and Donna reveal them as fakes and Halpen orders them found without too much disruption. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Donna break into Ood Distribution, a large warehouse full of containers filled with Ood ready for deportation. When the Doctor mentions the circle, all the Ood simultaneously state "The circle must be broken, so that we can sing". Kess spots them from above and sounds the alarm and they flee. They get separated when Donna is grabbed and locked in a container with advancing red-eyed Ood. The Doctor, meanwhile, is chased through the rows of contained by a giant claw controlled by Kess. He keeps up the chase for a while but Solana pulls the plug before the Doctor is killed. Afterwards, Donna is released from the container but the red-eyed Ood get loose and attack the guards. The Doctor, Donna and Solana flee distribution and the Doctor asks Solana to direct him to Ryder's territory of the complex so he can help with the red-eye. He offers her the chance to come with them but she simply reports them to the guards and directs Halpen in their direction. The Doctor and Donna break into Ood Conversion and find a ring of Ood sat in a cage; on closer inspection, the Doctor finds the Ood each holding a secondary brain in their hands, which is cut of as part of the conversion for the translator to be installed. Donna is sickened at the actions of humanity in the future and decides that, after they finish, she wants to go home. Halpen and the guards swarm the room and take the Doctor and Donna, cuffing them in the presentation room. Halpen decides that the red-eyed Ood need to be purged to keep the 'infection' from spreading and so has Kess set up gas canisters. The Doctor reasons that a third element, one that the humans are controlling, is responsible for causing the red-eye, a part of the Ood's telepathic connections to prevent conflict between their forebrains and hindbrains. Halpen doesn't answer and leaves them at the mercy of a trio of red-eyed Ood while outside a mass onslaught is going on between the guards and the Ood. At the same time, Ood Distribution is overrun and the Ood are released while Kess is locked inside and left to die from the gas canisters. The Doctor and Donna are saved from the red-eyed Ood by the unconverted Ood telepathically telling them they are friends. Upon their release, they follow Halpen and Ryder to Warehouse 15 to find the third link, a giant, tertiary brain contained in a circle of pylons, dampening the Ood's telepathic field and leaving them docile; the red-eye was the effect of the Ood's anger at attempting to break through the dampening manifesting itself. Halpen comes in with Ryder and holds them at gunpoint, having previously come in and set up a line of explosives to destroy the brain and kill all the Ood. Ryder, however, reveals he'd been conspiring against Halpen the entire time, informing him that the red-eye began when he reduced to dampening field to it's bare minimum. Spitefully, Halpin throws Ryder over the barrier to his death. Before he shoots either of the travellers, Ood Sigma repeatedly offers him a drink, which makes Halpie realise that something is happening to him. Sigma tells the Doctor that he'd been making Halpen ingest an Ood graft the entire time and Halpin is suddenly able to hear the Ood's song in his mind. Before a shocked Donna's eyes, Halpen's scalp comes away, tentacles start spewing from his mouth and he finally transforms into a fully-grown Ood, choking up his newly-developed hindbrain. Ood Sigma promises to take care of him as one of Oodkind now and the Doctor shuts off the pylons, permanently restoring the Ood's telepathic field to them and allowing them to sing freely again. Later on, the message of the Ood's freedom spreads across the galaxies and all the previously shipped Ood are brought back to the Ood Sphere in the rockets. Ood Sigma thanks the Doctor and Donna for freeing them and promises they will be remembered forever on their world; however, he also issues the Doctor an ominous warning that his "song must end soon". Regardless, the Ood sing off the travellers as they leave in the TARDIS. Cast * The Doctor - David Tennant * Donna Noble - Catherine Tate * Mr Halpen - Tim McInnerny * Solana Mercurio - Ayesha Dharker * Dr Ryder - Adrian Rawlins * Commander Kess - Roger Griffiths * Mr Bartle - Paul Clayton * Ood Sigma - Paul Kasey * Rep - Tariq Jordan * Voice of the Ood - Silas Carson Crew To be added References To be added Story Notes To be added Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''Planet of the Ood'' page on '''Doctor Who Website